Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 cannot simply return to their pre-pandemic way of life, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Wednesday.
“It won’t be like 2017 and 2018, when we weren’t at all concerned about contracting a pathogen in the respiratory tract,” said the former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner of “Squawk Box.” “We’re going to worry about it even though we’ve been vaccinated.”
However, he did say, “I think hopefully we worry a lot less than we are now.”
The new coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and spread around the world, causing a total of nearly 86.6 million infections and more than 1.87 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University as of Wednesday morning. The US, amid another number of cases and fatalities, was responsible for more than 21 million of those worldwide cases and more than 357,000 of the deaths.
Gottlieb, who led the FDA in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019, compared the possible changes in life in America after the coronavirus to flying on a plane after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. For example, he said that because of the pandemic believes public venues can continue to hold temperature displays. There may also be reluctance to “squeeze 50 people into a 10-person conference room,” he added.
“I just think things will be different, just like they are going through an airport after 9/11 now,” said Gottlieb, who is on the board of Pfizer, which makes a Covid-19 vaccine. “I don’t think masks will be mandatory next fall and winter if we can increase vaccination coverage and if these new variants disappear or stop. But I do think a lot of people will want to wear masks, and that’s okay.”
Gottlieb cited a few reasons behind his beliefs, including the reluctance of some people to be vaccinated against Covid-19, just as there is no universal seasonal flu vaccination. In addition, he stressed that the vaccines protect people from developing symptomatic Covid-19, not necessarily from ever becoming infected with the coronavirus.
“It will take time to fully answer that question because we will depend on real-world evidence, but the conventional wisdom … is that the vaccine is likely to prevent some people from becoming infected and likely reduce the chances of people being infected. infected [from transmitting] the virus, “said Gottlieb.” What we don’t know is the magnitude of that effect. ‘
Gottlieb said he believes that “if we get it right” in the US, Covid-19 will be a less widespread problem in the fall and winter than it is now. Instead, he said it could look more like a “very bad seasonal flu.”
“We will still see people getting sick. People will still die from Covid next winter, but it won’t be an epidemic,” he said. “It will circulate. There will be outbreaks. People who are vaccinated will have significantly less risk of a bad outcome.”
Gottlieb’s comments followed a warning he gave Tuesday night about the new strain of the coronavirus circulating in South Africa, telling CNBC’s Shepard Smith that it is “very concerning” because it may have mutated in a way that could affect the effectiveness of antibody drugs. could limit.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and serves on the boards of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus and biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.